The Internet has seen expansive growth over the last several years. Not only are there more Web sites providing a wide range of information, service, and goods, there are more users on the Internet than ever before.
Today, users may experience multimedia clips, purchase goods, access the world's news as it happens, obtain reviews on various items or products in a variety of formats, or access a variety of resources all on the Internet. For example, a user may read product reviews, view pictures of a product, or in some instances, watch a video presentation related to the product.
In order to access the available resources, however, Internet users are exposed to a variety of different media types while visiting a Web site. Not only may users access textual information, they may also view graphical images, or watch multimedia presentations, including audio and video, that may be streamed or downloaded. The steps required to access this media, however, may be overwhelming to many of the users. Not only do certain sites require users to use particular products to access the media, many sites require the user to know the configuration of their system in order to play certain media files. For example, a user may have to download a particular media player, upgrade to a different version, or know the particular programs they are using on their system. With so many available options to access and play media files, users are constantly bombarded with different requirements.
Another requirement to view many multimedia sites is a high bandwidth connection to the Internet. Many sites rely on the user having a high bandwidth when streaming media to the user. While the majority of businesses today have access to broadband, the majority of home users connect to the Internet through a low speed dial-up modem resulting in a poor multimedia experience.